The Fly: Remakes, Good or Bad?

‘The Fly’ Remakes, good or bad?                                                               Karl John Koo

The Fly was originally a short story first published in Playboy Magazine in 1957.

Kurt Neumann, who was a director and part time producer, realized the cinematic potential of The Fly. Kurt then brought the property to Robert Lippert, whom he had previously worked with and was now contracted as an associated producer to 20^th Century Fox.  

Fox was not a studio known for its Sci-Fi Films but had given Neumann and Lippert the green light to make the project and had given them a budget of $500,000, a small budget for the time when compared to the $15.2 million budget of M.G.M’S ‘Ben Hur’ that would only be released eleven months after ‘The Fly’.

During the 1950’s the general attitude towards Sci-Fi was not a kind one. The famous Science Fiction writer Philip K. Dick described the main stream view of Sci-Fi at this time as a “ghettoization”. However, Hollywood had suffered economic reverses in the 1950’s due to the popularity of Television. This meant that smaller studios and independent production company’s found it easier to raise finances for small budget projects. Low budget films where aggressively marketed towards teenagers and drive in movie theatres. And Independent Film makers had identified teens as the primary audience for Science Fiction.

Vincent Price was brought in to be the marquee actor of the film. Fox Studio reportedly had doubts about Prices marque value for the film but the director insisted on having Price in the film due to the fact that his fame could help draw a horror audience to a film that was being marketed as Science fiction.  The Technologies and production of the film where modest and the production crew had their hands tied by the restraints of the studio’s doubts about the film and commitments to the Hays Code.

20^th Century Fox had decided to market the film on a prevalent fear amongst the American people at that time.

Nuclear War had entered the public’s imagination. Godzilla arrived, awakened by a nuclear bomb and took out his revenge on modern society and in 1954 Warner Brothers had had modest success with the film ‘Them!’ Which told the story of giant-atomically muted-man eating ants. Fox paid attention to this when they marketed The Fly with the tagline “The first time atomic mutation on humans has been shown on the screen!” and the film was met with relative success earning £4 million at the box office, spawning two sequels (Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly) and helping establish further Vincent Prices reputation as a Marque star in Horror and Science Fiction genre films.

 
    

In the twenty eight years between the original ‘The Fly’ and its remake the world had gone through many changes. In the 1960’s Science fiction had been taken out of the ghetto and into the appraisal of highbrow literature critics due to the seminal works by the ‘New Wave of Science Fiction’ authors who had decided to reinvent the genre. These writers felt that science fiction was too concerned with rocket ships and Martians and had decided to paint pictures of post-apocalyptic dystopian futures whilst drawing on themes of sex, violence, reality and humanity. Meanwhile, Cinema was becoming more artistic with the French Nouvelle Vague movement started by such auteur film Directors as Jean Luc Godard. These Films where breaking new ground in technique and style and the Fame and creative control that the directors held became very influential in America and had a strong effect on the changing of Hollywood’s landscape. Arthur Pens ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ had helped relax the studio’s attitude toward the Hays Code and Soon enough America had Auteur film directors of their own, with the rising notoriety of film makers such as Dennis Hopper and Martin Scorsese.

In the 1970’s David Cronenberg had started out as an independent film maker, using the medium to display his artistic ability to create repulsive, unsettling Visuals.  David had come to critical Acclaim and had had small success with his ‘Body Horror’ films ‘Creepers’, ‘Scanners’ and ‘The Dead Zone’. During this time Star Wars Box office figures earned $775.4 million from an $ 11 million budget and E.T had become the highest grossing film in cinema history earning $792.9 million worldwide. The success of these two films meant Hollywood producers were willing to put money in to Sci-fi films, hoping to have the next big smash hit.

Mel Brooks’ production company had just come into success with the film “The Elephant Man” which Brooks had left in the hands of surrealist Auteur director David Lynch. The film had won eight Academy Award nominations and had made a $21 million profit at the box office from a $5 million budget. Accordingly, when Mel Brooks had bought the rights to ‘The Fly’, he quickly hired David Cronenberg to direct the film hoping to gain similar success to that of ‘The Elephant man’. Cronenberg was given a budget of $9 million to work on a more mature and sophisticated reworking of The Fly.

In the 1980’s the general public had become more privy to scientific fact, so when re writing the script David Cronenberg, along with screen writer Charles Edward Pogue, decided to have the story’s protagonist merge his genetic structure with that of a fly, causing his body to slowly mutate. The mutation of the main character, scientist Seth Brundle, played upon a new public fear in the 1980’s in a similar fashion to the original films nod toward nuclear threat.  The Aids virus had been Reported by Tabloid newspapers as scare story’s, feeding the populous’ inability to understand how the Aids virus actually spreads. Everyday people lived in fear of the possibility that a homosexual plumber might infect their cistern. Cronnenerg’s speciality for “Body Horror” almost seemed perfect for this story at that particular time.

Chris Wallace had designed the special affects for the film. The final part of Seth’s transformation into a man/fly hybrid were designed first, then throughout the filming of the movie seth’s make up was gradually progressed through seven stages.  When production had ended the film was shown to a test audience, and due to the negative reaction from particularly gruesome scenes, the film was cut accordingly before being given a wide distribution.

Upon its release the fly gained critical acclaim and had garnered $60.6 million at the box office despite being a gory remake of a classic made by a controversial, non-mainstream director. The remake had even won the Oscar for best make up affects and gained a sequel in 1989.

In conclusion to the question, remakes good or bad? The Fly is a perfect example of how a good film can be improved on, given the circumstances and the people involved in the production. Both of these films, like most science fiction, are a representation of the times and are well and truly worthy of the success that both films garnered when released.